A potential value of familiarity and experience: can informal fieldwork have a lasting impact upon literacy?

Abstract

This paper demonstrates that an informal field trip can have a lasting impact upon aspects of learning in a primary school context. Specifically, we consider the longer term impact of an informal trip to a rocky shore upon scores achieved in literacy assessments taking place five months after a relevant five months after a fieldwork. Pupils provided with an opportunity to write about organisms that they had encountered during the field trip and with which they were therefore familiar achieved higher literacy levels than those children writing about less familiar animals that had not been encountered during fieldwork. Specific improvement in the ability of the children to use specialised vocabulary and elaborated descriptive were recorded. Our work adds to the growing body of research evidence that demonstrates the benefits of outdoor learning experiences focused upon ecology/biology across the wider curriculum.

Keywords:

• fieldwork
• out of classroom learning
• literacy
• ecology

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Esmeé Fairbairn Foundation who generously supported this project, the pupils and teachers of Hornsea Community Primary School who took part in the project, Dr Lisa Scott, and two anonymous reviewers who provided helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper.